Zac and Lori's Trip to England and Amsterdam

January 13, 2026

Zac and Lori's Trip to England and Amsterdam

Zac had a Ash conference in Amsterdam and talked me into traveling with him, by bribing me with a side trip to London England! This is the first time I have traveled internationally with him since the twins were babies and I went with him to Mexio.

It was over a 10-hour flight, and I thought I might die from sitting there.

It was so incredible driving into London and seeing those iconic buildings I have seen so many times in movies and pictures.

Unfortunately, it rained, and rained, and rained most of the time we were in London. Zac even bought an umbrella and the wind destroyed it within 5 minutes!

We were able to get tickets to go in and tour the Parliament building, and it was absolutely stunning. There is so much history in England.

Buckingham Place!

There are monuments and tributes to Queen Victoria everywhere. We were curious about the little guy on her shoulder?

I got to try my traditional English fish and chips!

And Zac had steak, but couldn't find anyone who had American-style steak sauce, but they did bring him a nice cup of pepper gravy to dip it in.

All the Brittish treats we grew up singing about and talking about in nursery rhymes!

Big Ben

Westminster Abby

We went to visit Trafalgar Square, and were surprised when we walked in on a large anti-Israel protest. The police were lining up, preparing to arrest some of the unruly protestors. It made me a little nervous, but it appeared to be a peaceful protest, and even the police officers were good-natured.

We also got the opportunity to tour Winston Churchills War Room, which was underground in the middle of town under some of the large buildings. We had both watched The Darkest Hour on the plane ride, which talkes about Winston Churchill, so it was incredible to see his actual war rooms.

We also got to ride the big double-decker red buses!

And took in Back to the Future the musical on London's West End. It was absolutely awesome!

After a couple of days in London, we hopped on a train and went through Belgium and France on our way to Amsterdam, Netherlands.

The train ride was so amazing! We loved going under the chunnel and into France, seeing the countryside and sprawling out on the train!

Amsterdam was old and historic and as beautiful as a painting!

The food was to die for!

And the palace was right in the center of town in Dam Square.

Very few people drive cars in Amsterdam. Most travel by bike or by boat.

We got the opportunity to tour the royal family's palace.

We also had fun exploring Madame Toussaud's wax museum and Ripley's Believe It or Not museum.

Fry sauce is a little different in the Netherlands! But they sure do love their fries!

It was sadly quite rainy all week in the Netherlands as well as England. A tropical storm arrived about the same time we did.

We had a fun time taking a canal tour on a dinner boat that was provided by Zac's conference! We got to eat some pretty fancy foods, that were not the most tasty and chatted with new friends from foreign countries.

Sadly, while we were there, the royal palace got vandalized by Free Palestine protestors. We found out while we were there that we had just missed a rally of over 100,000 protestors protesting Israel's rule. It was apparently the 2nd anniversary of when the conflict started.